The next morning as Po made his way to the kitchen, he was intercepted by Tigress who had clearly hung back at the front of the doors to talk to him.

"What did you tell Ordai yesterday?" she asked. Po couldn't help but notice that she looked slightly concerned, though she tried to keep a composed expression. "She gave me the death glare this morning."

Po groaned. "Nothing," he told the master. "I just said if she kept being rude to everyone, I'd tell her to leave."

"So why is she mad at me?"

"I don't know. I don't really understand why she gets so irritated in the first place, but I told her if she kept making underhanded comments about Tai Lin, or Jai Rong, or you...well, especially you with the whole Dragon Warrior thing-"

"Ah. That explains it."

Tigress' gaze relaxed a bit, but Po could still tell that she was curious and confused, so he explained that he wanted to give everybody a chance. He knew that sometimes people took a while to open up or understand things, so he wanted to be patient. But if Ordai wasn't willing to do that even with a warning, then that was her last chance.

"Is someone messing with my best friend?" interrupted a somewhat familiar voice.

Po jumped three feet in surprise while Tigress just laughed at his expense.

"I'm fine, Neikan. Don't worry about me," Tigress told the young iriomote.

"One of the girls is just being miffy with her being the new Dragon Warrior is all," Po explained quickly. "I'm handling it."

"Ah, I see. It sounds like we could all use a break then."

"We're managing," Tigress promised.

Neikan smirked and slid next to Tigress, locking arms with her. "Are you sure?" she asked. "I'm going to be outdoors all day in the nice and serene forest and could use some company...you could come on a nice long stroll with me and then stop by for some tea....."

Tigress eyed her. "What's the catch?" she asked.

"What catch? Two best friends can't spend the day together?"

"Today's not your day off and you're making that face you make when you're hiding something."

"Oh, so serious, Master Tigress! You got me. Ella's going out today with Princess Shu-Yang, and I've been called to be bodyguard while they explore the bamboo forest and some of the sights from the cliffs."

"I see. And you want me to go because you need relief?"

"Guarding isn't as glamorous as it sounds, so as well as possibly being bored from looking at nothing, I hear Ella's conversation is draining to listen to. So I could use a friend who I can roll my eyes with."

Tigress laughed. "I suppose," she admitted. "But you'll have to take that up with Master Shifu. He has training plans and he doesn't like to have them interrupted."

"Oh by all means," Neikan said, walking backwards into the kitchen and dragging Tigress with her. "I'll have great fun convincing your dad to let you come along."

"Don't call him that," Tigress warned firmly.

Po held back a laugh as they disappeared from sight and he was quick to run after them to get breakfast and see the show. Especially since it turned out Neikan took great pleasure in chatting with Master Shifu, who had never had a full conversation with her and was surprised by her very casual manner of speaking to higher ups. (Neikan's excuse was that her parents raised her to treat equals with respect but never to be belittled, so her conversations tended to be very forward, which Tigress concurred with clear enjoyment at Shifu's confusion). She took some tea that Viper offered her and then proceeded to converse with Shifu about the positives of Tigress accompanying her on a very scenic and educated journey with the princess and Ella. Ella of course was very happy to have Tigress journey with her and was surprised and intrigued by the master's friendship with Neikan. Tigress had to give her friend a very quick look to keep her conversation limited alongside a look which Shifu and the Five knew meant something along the lines of I do not want to deal with awkward conversation right now. Fortunately Neikan got the hint and simply told Ella that between herself and Tigress, she'd be the safest she ever could be. Shifu mulled over the idea as breakfast was served, but then conceded and allowed the Dragon Warrior to accompany the guards.

When Neikan thanked Shifu and left, the grandmaster turned to Tigress and commented, "Your friend is both a very good and very bad influence, Dragon Warrior. I can see the appeal."

Tigress laughed. "She's a good person when you get to know her," she promised. "She's just a lot more casual than I am."

"Evidently."

"She's definitely interesting," Mantis noted. "I'll give her that."

Crane glanced after Neikan and looked back at Tigress. "She calls you Ressa?" he asked.

"Nickname," Tigress told him simply. "She used to call me a bunch of abbreviated names just to irritate me and that one just wound up sticking."

"You don't mind when we call you Ti," Po pointed out.

"You I don't mind," Tigress said. "Unless it's something stupid, like Tiggity."

Po turned red. "I was trying to be cool!" he protested.

"I know. And I was not into that as a nickname. Not really my thing."

"Does Neikan have a nickname?" Viper asked.

Tigress glanced at Ella who was looking at her with peaked interest. "I'm sure her parents gave her one," she said. "But I wouldn't know." And she quickly ate some of her breakfast before anyone could ask her anymore questions.

"Really?" Ella piped up with a fake look of surprise not getting the hint. "You two seem like such great friends, Dragon Warrior. Come on! Give us a hint."

"Why don't you mind your own business for once?" Tigress suggested.

"But you're so mysterious, Dragon Warrior! I can't rest until I know every little detail. There's nothing so annoying than someone with no emotions I can work with."

"You mean no emotions you can manipulate," Tigress commented, drinking her tea.

"Ella, she said to drop it," Po said quickly. "Let's move on to something else."

Ella shrugged. Smirked. "Alright," she agreed. "I can wait. I'm a very patient woman."

Tigress frowned irritably but said nothing. The group past by breakfast in relative peace, switching to a completely new topic of conversation until Tigress and Ella got up to leave for the long walk with the emperor's daughter and the other guards. Shifu and the remaining Furious Five left the kitchen to do their training (most likely with Master Shifu having to rethink parts of the exercise with Tigress' last minute absent). Po wasn't sure what he wanted to do for the day, but after scattering from the table and walking around the grounds for a little bit to enjoy the nice warm day, he was intercepted by Tai Lin who asked if he wanted to walk around the village the two of them for a little bit.

"Sure, I'd be down for that," Po said with a smile. "Do you want to just wander around or are we doing shopping?"

"Doesn't matter. If I see something of interest, maybe. It depends."

"Okay. In that case, let me grab my money."

Tai Lin thought that was a pretty good idea and followed after him to grab her own. They split at the stairs in the barracks to grab what they needed, though Po stopped in his room when he felt something was off. It felt...uneven? Empty? He was getting a feeling and he didn't like it. It was like playing one of those 60 second puzzles, which was one of many things he was not good at.

I should tell Shifu about the missing action figures while I'm thinking about it, he thought to himself, glancing around his room and slowly and carefully grabbing his money out of the trunk under his bed. I hate the idea of a thief running around but I would like my stuff back.....

Po's eyes settled on the corner of his room and then it suddenly dawned on him that his travel bag was missing. He looked around the room. Under the bed. In his trunk.

Okay, SERIOUSLY?! What is happening?! My action figures? Okay I can kind of get that. My ring? Definitely can understand that. My panda plushie? And my travel bag?! What...is...going....on?????!!!!

"Po?" came Tai Lin's voice from down the hallway. Po sighed and came back out of the room. Noticing the perplexed look on his face, the snow leopard asked what was wrong, which caused Po to immediately vent about why his items were still going missing, why they were going missing, who was stealing them, and what was so important about a stupid panda plushie or dingy old travel bag?! And that panda plushie had a rip in it! Tai Lin assured him that they would figure it out and to just walk around and try not to worry about it. They could ask the other masters later and see if they could get some help from them in figuring out Po's mystery thief. Po told her he would and tried his best to not think about it for the time being. They would just enjoy the morning and then worry about the thief later. Of course, that was easier said than done since Po would get sidetracked while they went down the stairs, or passing by the noodle shop, or if they passed by a toy shop over towards the bridge that went over the waterways. Tai Lin eventually convinced him to hang out by one of the venders who was making fresh smoothies for passing travelers and any villagers who had been out for a majority of the day running errands. The vender was very happy to make the two a little drink for the road and gave Tai Lin a smoothie with mango, orange, and banana while Po asked for plum and apple. Tai Lin led him over to one of the rivers running through the valley so that he could sit down and relax. Po did, but he was still preoccupied over the question of who was stealing his stuff and wound up just quickly drinking some of his smoothie and then stopping to clutch his head when he got a brain freeze.

"Are you okay?" Tai Lin asked.

Po winced and put his tongue to the roof of his mouth. "Yeah," he said, though his voice came out a bit garbled. He sat there for a moment letting the freeze go away before he sighed and shook his smoothie around for a bit. "Sorry," he apologized. "I just...I'm so confused by all these weird things going on...my stuff going missing.....that creepy guy following me and Ella...missing things and then having them turn up via thief or really random....spot....."

Po's mind wandered back to when he had been trying to teach some of the girls how to use the Hearts of Yin and Yang and how he had lost the fan, only to have it turn up in the weapons rack. Even the girls had noted much later how strange that had been.

What if creepy guy had stolen his ring?! No, wait...that didn't make sense. It was the Ladies of the Shade who did it to frame Song.

But his stuff was still going missing......

Po shuddered at the idea of someone actively stalking and following him for weeks without his knowledge and he tried to shake the idea out of his head. Almost as if she had read his mind, Tai Lin gently squeezed his shoulder and promised he would be fine. "Your friends are all very sharp," she noted. "Not to mention Ella." She laughed. "I never thought I'd put that sentence together."

Po laughed, though it trailed off into a little sigh. "You're right," he said. "Maybe I'm just a little paranoid with everything going on during the past few days."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that. Never did me any harm. But if you guys can catch Xiaobo and thieves and bandits and other criminals pretty quickly, I have to admit we're in really good hands."

"True. I'll try not to think about it. I think I'm just anxious to tell Shifu and he won't be done with training for a while."

He and Tai Lin drank more of their smoothie, with Tai Lin leaning against Po with a little sigh as they just watched the villagers move around the Valley of Peace. After some minutes of silence, Po let out a little laugh and noted that the best part of getting drinks out was getting the free cup. Tai Lin had to agree, especially since each vender had their own unique cup design that they liked to show off. It was like getting a free piece of pottery as a compliment to the drink. As they continued talking, they were startled by flying mud that came in their direction. Po spotted it out of the corner of his eye and moved both himself and Tai Lin back and out of the line of fire.

"What the-?!" Tai Lin cried.

"You traitorous wench!" screamed an unfortunately familiar voice.

Tai Lin and Po stood up to look at Xiaobo who was standing just a few feet away and getting another mudball to hurl at them.

"How the heck did you get away from the guards?!" Po yelled.

"What in the world are you doing with my wife?!" the snow leopard demanded without even answering the question.

"For the last time, I am not going to marry you!" Tai Lin screamed back with equal fury. "Stop bothering my boyfriend!"

This only seemed to fuel Xiaobo's fury as he starting throwing a barrage of mudballs at the two, forcing them to duck for cover underneath a few local carts. Some of the villagers, seeing what was going on, quickly ran away from the commotion to either get the local law enforcement or some of the guards they had seen wandering around the village. The venders, worried their merchandise or food might get ruined, quickly packed up their carts and made a run for an area that promised to be mud free.

"Double-crossing brat!" Xiaobo was yelling as Po and Tai Lin narrowly avoided getting splattered with mud. "Black stain on a perfectly wonderful red dress! Dark cloud on a sunny day! You're as deceptive as your name, whatever you call yourself now! I bet he doesn't even know that does he! I KNOW EVERYTHING!!!!!! INCLUDING ALL YOUR OLD FLAMES WHO YOU STAYED WITH JUST TO SPITE ME!!!!!!"

Xiaobo stopped at the next waterway to load back up on mud during the run. Noticing this, Po quickly grabbed Tai Lin's wrist and ducked into the back of one of the alleys and ran as fast as possible towards his dad's noodle shop. He heard the angry and confused yell coming from Xiaobo who demanded for Tai Lin to come out from hiding and face the wedding music like a woman! Called her a coward and insisted she owed him for seven years of abandonment and neglect and standing him up when he put so much money into their wedding day. Let loose many things that no one in the village dared repeat when telling the story to others when all of the drama had ceased and unsuspecting villagers questioned what all the tension was about. Po finally reached the back of his dad's noodle shop and quickly jumped and pulled Tai Lin into his open bedroom window to hide until all the commotion died down. Tai Lin, needless to say, was not pleased about the situation and was very much shaken up by her ex's sudden appearance. Both she and Po were confused as to how he got loose, again, but they decided they should wait and find out after Xiaobo gave up and left. This didn't take too long since the guards, having heard him scream and seeing some of the villagers come to them with concerns, quickly ran after him to catch him, though Xiaobo was quick to hide and vanish after some quick sprinting. When Po and Tai Lin could no longer hear him, they left Mr. Ping's restaurant (startling Mr. Ping for a brief moment) and were quickly intercepted by the guards who asked if they were alright.

"Physically, yeah, we're fine," Po said with a sigh. "He just threw mud."

"We're really sorry about that," the one guard apologized. "We took him to the local jail and he somehow broke out within the two minutes Constable Hu left the room to grab paperwork. So we had to get called back to look for him, and he keeps getting away!"

"We're going to ask Sensei Kurosawa for assistance once she returns from patrol," a second rhino guard added. "She has actual kung fu experience so maybe she knows more about how to better track psychopaths."

"Don't all guards train to fight?" Tai Lin asked with an incredulous look on her face.

"Yes, but it's for dealing with pesky bandits and thwarting intruding thieves and criminals. Tracking and dealing with specialized criminals are usually for higher-up guards or ones with specialized training. Apparently when Shifu sent out the message for extra guards from Japan, Sir Aeoka thought it would be advisable to send one of the specialized guards to help as an added benefit. Just in case."

"Well I'm glad he did," Po noted. He sighed and told them that if he saw Neikan before they did, he'd let her know she was needed in the valley. The guards thanked him and watched as Po and Tai Lin walked away and back up the Thousand Steps.

"Well, so much for a calm and quiet morning," Tai Lin commented sadly with a long sigh.

"I'll let Shifu know," Po promised. "I guess just plopping him into a cell isn't going to work. Maybe we have acupressure cuffs lying around somewhere. Those'll keep him from moving too much."

"Accupressure cuffs?"

"The more you move, the tighter the handcuffs get. They're used on really dangerous criminals to limit their movements and prevent them from escaping and wreaking more havoc."

"Hmmm. Sounds promising. Well, if you can get those on him, I'd appreciate it. I think this is more than even I can handle." Tai Lin sighed.

"He might be upping his game because he knows we don't believe him," Po suggested. "Just don't let it get to you, okay? We've all got your back."

"Thanks Po." Tai Lin sighed again. "If it's alright with you, I'm going to lay down for a bit. I have a sudden migraine from this."

"Sure. You go do that."

Tai Lin walked away while Po sighed and headed over to the training hall to look for Shifu. He knew that he and the Five were still training, but he needed something to get his mind off of the whole mess with Xiaobo. Plus, he needed to have a long talk with Shifu the second he was done. After making the long trek across the grounds, Po pushed open the doors that led to the training arena and startled his friends who turned out were training in the open air with blindfolds.

"Oh, Po! Good late morning," Shifu greeted with a surprised expression. "I thought you might have been Wu for a second."

"Nah, it's just me," Po promised.

"Miss us already?" Monkey joked. He took a nearby staff from the weapons rack that was standing nearby and quickly moved to whack him on the head, only for Po to block him. The panda laughed, though only briefly.

"If it's okay, Shifu, I wouldn't mind watching," Po told the red panda. "Or...participating? I don't know what you guys are up to."

Shifu furrowed his brow in confusion but then sighed and asked Po what happened.

"A lot....." the master sighed. "But I don't want to disturb your training, so I thought I'd wait for you to finish."

"Does this have anything to do with thievery, Xiaobo, or a major accident?"

"Um....two out of three."

Shifu blinked in surprise but quickly regained his composure and said, "Furious Five, I'm adjourning your training for the time being. We'll resume after lunch."

The four masters bowed to Shifu and left the training grounds, each of them giving Po a look of pity and Monkey giving the panda a pat of sympathy on his shoulders. When they had left, Shifu gestured for Po to follow him into the training hall where they sat on the ground off to one side of the building to talk.

"What happened?" the grandmaster asked with a look of concern.

Po sighed. "It's...kind of a lot of things, but the biggest one is that Xiaobo got loose."

"What?!" Shifu exclaimed. His tone shifted into an angry one mixed with a bit of disbelief. "How?!"

"I don't know," Po admitted. "All the guards said was that he broke out in the two seconds Constable Hu wasn't paying attention to him. He threw mud at me and Tai Lin earlier and called her a lot of pretty bad things. We didn't get hurt, but...."

Shifu sighed. "Oh dear," he mumbled. "How's Tai Lin?"

"She's okay, but I think she's really shaken up. She does a good job of hiding it. The guards said they're waiting for Neikan to get back since they think she can help out with tracking him and arresting him."

"I'll send the five out as well. The more paws the better and I'd prefer having Xiaobo back into prison as soon as possible."

"Sounds like a plan," Po agreed. "I think I'll help too."

"What else is going on that has you all ruffled?"

Po hesitated, sighed, and added, "I think someone's stealing my stuff."

Shifu eyed him. "Stealing your stuff?" he repeated.

"Yeah. I thought maybe I misplaced everything, but I just remembered that I had them in my bag during the interviews with everybody here, and now my panda plushie is missing, and my travel bag just went missing between yesterday and this morning, and I know that was on my floor-!"

"That's...very strange," Shifu noted. "Not to mention concerning."

"Yeah, and infuriating! I mean, my action figures maybe I could understand but my travel bag?! Just...why?! Oh no. I hope my ring didn't go missing again!"

Po quickly got up and ran out of the training hall and all the way back to the barracks with Shifu following close behind so he could get a better visual on what was happening. Fortunately when Po went to check the box his dad had given him, he was relieved to see his personal property still there. Shifu in the meantime glanced around the room and noticed indeed that Po's gigantic travel bag was nowhere in sight.

"I admit this is one of the more puzzling things to go missing," he told Po. "But don't worry, Master Po. We'll get to the bottom of this. I'll keep my eyes and ears open and ask around."

"Thanks. I'm gonna' do that too. I didn't want to outright say someone is a thief because that's just weird and we already had to deal with the thief that came by earlier, but...well, I can't think of any other explanation."

"And if there is, we'll figure it out. In the meantime, let's see if we can get Xiaobo back into prison."

"Do we have any acupressure cuffs to stick on him?"

"We might. I'll have to look. If not I'm sure Constable Hu can manage with something just as sturdy."

The two headed back out of the barracks and went in immediate search of the Furious Five who were just as shocked and appalled at Xiaobo's sudden escape. They immediately went out with Po to try and track him down, and just two hours later, they were joined by Neikan and Tigress who had come back from guarding the Princess and Ella. (They had their own story to share to everyone in the Jade Palace, much to the terror of the emperor and empress, though everyone turned out okay). Despite the long search and despite Neikan having a very heightened sense of smell and a good record for tracking, they were unable to find a trace of Xiaobo anywhere in the Valley. Neikan did tell Shifu and the Furious Five that Xiaobo must have had a lot of practice with hiding and deceiving people since usually she could pick up the trail of any evading criminals withing 24 hours.

"That and he could have a comrade," she suggested. "Usually when someone is hiding for an abnormally long time, it's because they have an accomplice. Doesn't have to be a willing one."

"I would hope not," Shifu said irritably.

Neikan shrugged. "I've seen worse," she replied.

At the end of the day, the emperor and his family finally left and bid goodbye to the Jade Palace masters and left the Valley of Peace, with Ella giving them a very dramatic goodbye wave. Po was hoping this would mean that Wu and Ming would leave, but unfortunately they had to remain in the valley for a few extra days in order to enforce the rules that the emperor had decided to enact or change. (Though everyone tried their best to not make any loud groans of annoyance at this for fear of igniting more arguments and having insults being tossed out). The following day Tai Lin opted to remain in the Jade Palace just to avoid Xiaobo and Po and the masters once again teamed up with the guards in order to track down the vicious ex. At some point Neikan, Tigress, and the usuri black bear guard (whom Po found out had the nickname Razor-Jaw for a very interesting reason) managed to catch Xiaobo wandering around trying to trade with one of the valley's shopkeepers. The stand owner, having seen the commotion Xiaobo had caused the previous day and knowing about the truth behind the rumors thanks to Mr. Ping, immediately called out to the three to get the ex away from his stall. Unfortunately Xiaobo managed to slip away in the water and disappear downstream, though the three warriors managed to follow him for a good mile or so downstream before his trail went cold. At the end of the very long day of searching, Po and his friends retreated into the Jade Palace while another set of guards took to looking for Xiaobo in their place. Since Tigress, Neikan, and Razor-Jaw were still sopping wet from their long swim, Shifu offered for them to warm up by the fire that had been lit in his room in the back of the Sacred Hall of Warriors.

"I didn't realize he knew how to swim," Tai Lin remarked irritably as she watched the three sit in front of the fire place. "Of course I hardly know much about him aside from the fact that he's an unrelenting stalker, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."

"And that he must have been the champion of hide and seek as a kid," Neikan joked, though she was quickly and roughly nudged by Tigress and given a warning look. "What, it's true! The skills we gain in our younger years come back to us as muscle memory. Coupled with his stalking tendencies and his constant harassment, he's the best camouflaged criminal I've ever encountered in my life!"

"I'll tell you what'll happen when I get to him...." Razor Jaw muttered. "Little wretched man and his delusional ego and fantastical ideas."

Po and the rest of the Five sat quietly in the corner next to Tai Lin, who was also being accompanied by Lu-Shi as a support buddy. Unfortunately, so was Ella, though she didn't say anything too condescending about Tai Lin, and she was being nice for the time being, so the masters chose to just ignore her.

"I know you have some trauma with this man," Neikan noted, turning around and drying off part of her head with a towel she had been given earlier. "But is it okay if I ask personal questions? If I can better understand his personality, it might help. Psychology and all."

"What kind of questions?" Tai Lin asked.

"Well...what are his parents like? Since he keeps insisting you're his wife...have you ever met them?"

"Once," Tai Lin admitted with a long sigh. "They didn't particularly care for me. I'm not sure why, but they made it very clear they did not agree with us being married. I wasn't good enough for their son, I wasn't wealthy enough.... Of course my foster parents had no problem with trying to forcefully give them my expensive choker to compensate for it...." She shuddered and said nothing further.

"Did you have a long talk with them or did they just make casual remarks?"

"Casual remarks. I told Xiaobo I wasn't interested in a second date, so he proposed to me, thinking that was going to make things better....I hightailed it out of that restaurant back home! And then he somehow found out where I lived...probably through stalking me...and then asked my foster family if he could marry me and they said absolutely and talked about planning the wedding for literally the next day. Then Xiaobo brought over Mr. and Mrs. Uiah who made it very clear they did not want him to marry me...Xiaobo told them he wasn't going to listen, I told him I didn't want to marry him and that I have a choice to say no, and then my foster family scolded me for being ungrateful and locked me in my room until the wedding day."

"How exactly did you get out of that situation?!' Po asked. "Your family seems very controlling."

"I had a lucky break. I was waiting in my bridal chamber for the wedding to start...I was tied up by the way, if it gives you any idea on how crazy these people were...and by coincidence one of the wedding guests left an unsheathed sword in the tent. So I cut the ropes, slipped out, and made a break for the woods. I came back to the house later under the cover of darkness to get the stuff I hid from my foster family and then I left for good. Except every couple of months or years Xiaobo would find me and start ruining whatever life I started building so...it's been an unbearable couple of years I have to admit."

"Lucky indeed!" Razor Jaw told her. "You could have gotten stuck with him!"

Tai Lin shuddered. "Don't give me a visual, please," she begged.

Neikan frowned as Tigress gave Monkey a look for laughing at her disheveled fur from drying off. "Do you know who brought the wedding gifts?" she asked Tai LIn.

"Is that important?" 

"I'm simply asking if you know."

"Oh...um...no."

"Do Mr. Uiah's parents have a reputation?"

"A reputation? Sure. They're the richest people in the entire community. They literally build a 120 acre garden around their home so that some of the poorer end communities in the mountains could have access to fresh vegetables during the winter. But apparently they're very strict when it comes to family tradition and values, especially in marriage."

"And their son is breaking every single one of those rules," Neikan told her with a hint of a laugh. "So they let you escape."

Tai Lin looked at her. "What?" she asked.

"They let her escape?" Tigress seconded.

"Mr. Uiah is spoiled from his parent's immense wealth as well as self-righteous and egotistical, but he's also, from what I'm gathering, very romantic, generous, and attentive towards those who are in less fortunate circumstances. Combined, it makes a very dangerous and ambitious stalker with delusions of grandeur. In other words, absolutely nothing we say or do is going to snap him out of it unless he somehow miraculously gets an epiphany and gets some kind of help."

Tai Lin rolled her eyes as if to convey the ridiculousness of the idea.

"His parents seem like polar opposites. I'm assuming either they themselves or one of their parents started off in poverty and worked their way to the top, and they keep that in mind and try to care for others who struggle. They're generous and well-meaning, but also sensible and intelligent. All the excuses they said on why you couldn't marry may have some roots in their values, but add in a randomly unsheathed sword, I think they knew about what was really going on and were trying to prevent you two from getting married."

Tai Lin looked confused by this idea. "They didn't come across that way to me," she admitted. She sighed. "I don't know...this whole mess is just very overwhelming."

"That's totally understandable. And I'm sure once we get Xiaobo and have him locked up, you can straighten out any loose ends that need straightening and then move on with your life."

Tai Lin sighed. "That'd be nice," she admitted.

Po patted her shoulder as a way to reassure her. The group was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a messenger goose loudly knocking on the wooden doors of the Sacred Hall of Warriors and calling out, "MAIL DELIVERY!"

"I'll see to this," Shifu offered, walking out of his room to answer the messenger before he made any more noise.

"Maybe the guards caught him?" Po suggested hopefully.

"Or it's just a messenger for Shifu from one of the other master's temples," Tigress told him seriously.

Neikan held back a laugh. "Oh, let them have hope," she told the Dragon Warrior with a little nudge. "There's nothing wrong with a little positivity."

"There's a difference between being positive and getting your hopes up too high."

"Well whatever it is, it's a message, so it contains something for someone, and hopefully it's better than saying our crazy psychopath keeps evading highly trained guards, samurais, and masters."

"Okay, wait, so...I'm a bit confused," Crane said. "Are you a guard or a master? I've heard you called by multiple different names at this point."

"Officially, I'm a specialized imperial solider," Neikan explained. "We're assigned to guard and protect particularly dangerous  areas or situations that require more than the usual attention. My training was started under Sensei Kurimoko, but he died unexpectedly from a stroke after a few years so I finished under Sensei Zund. Nice man. A little aloof at times though, I have to admit. Afterwards I got the option of progressing to professional samurai or picking a different profession so I chose a guard. I like giving my opponents a surprise when they come against me."

"I'm surprised about Sensei Kurimoko. He always seemed to be in great health," Tigress admitted. "And he was a pretty spry man, which says a lot since he always complained about back problems."

"Oh yeah I remember that!" Neikan said happily. "He'd always walk in all hunched over until he could get his back working and in the meantime he kicked the butt out of all the new people who thought he was an easy target!"

"Just in case you were wondering where I got lesson one from, Po," Tigress told him. "He and Shifu were famous for that."

"Lesson one?" Ella asked with a look of confusion and suspicion.

"Long story," Po explained.

Shifu walked back into the room with the message that had been dropped off and walked over to Tai Lin. "This just arrived for you," he told her.

"Me?" Tai Lin asked in confusion. She took the scroll from Shifu and opened it, reading the message to herself for about a minute before she quickly crumpled it and abruptly left the room. Lu-Shi picked the paper off the floor and uncrumpled it in order to see what was going on. Her eyes widened and she quickly said, "Xiaobo told her foster family where she was. They wrote a pretty nasty letter."

Ella was curious to know the details, but Po opted to get up and look for Tai Lin. She had already left the Sacred Hall of Warriors, so it took him a second to figure out where she had gone off to. Po initially thought she might have gone to the barracks, but he caught a glimpse of her heading towards the very back of the mountains that the Jade Palace was built into. The master followed after her and eventually reached a very small little grassy area nestled in a corner of the large mountain. Tai Lin had already sat down against the stone cliff with her arms wrapped around her legs. Po sat down next to her.

"Is it okay if I ask?" he asked slowly.

Tai Lin sighed heavily. "There's nothing to tell," she grumbled. "Just another letter they sent to guilt-trip me into marrying him."

"Another letter?"

"I got rid of the others. I didn't want to look at them. I spent years doing exactly as they told me to because I was an orphan, no one adopted teenagers so I was lucky they were even bothering taking me in since I had no relatives to my name, I was throwing away a perfectly good match and no one would marry a spinster so I shouldn't throw away good options...my biological clock is ticking-"

Po put a paw to her shoulder. "Well, they're far away now," he assured her. "You don't have to deal with them."

"I know. It's not so much what they say, it's how much they hound me and the little things they say to get under my skin. Because it is true. I'd like to get married and have a family, one who loves me as much as my parents, but I feel like between Xiaobo, my foster parents, and all the cowardly boyfriends I've had...I'm starting to doubt I'm ever going to have that."

Po patted her shoulder, though he knew this was probably not much of a comfort to her at the moment. He glanced at her face which had turned away from his, looking past the trees and the skyline in the distance and most likely not focused on anything in particular. She was probably too worried and anxious.

"I wish there was a way to arrest Xiaobo or get a restraining order," Po admitted. "Then you'd have less to worry about."

"I didn't have witnesses to provide proof, so the local police wouldn't file anything," Tai Lin grumbled. "His word against mine, and since my foster family agrees with him and says all kinds of awful things against me, I'm outvoted by two accounts....."

Po frowned in annoyance. "Well that's not going to fly with us," he told her. "We can talk to Shifu and he can probably keep him from even entering the same province as you."

Tai Lin looked at him with a frown. "Then why does he let Crane move about the Jade Palce when he's clearly bothering Viper?" she questioned.

Po paused. "Uh...actually I don't know," he admitted. "I can ask."

Tai Lin sighed. "I appreciate the thought, really," she told him. "But it might be better if I just leave."

"But that's not going to solve anything!"

"No, but it's better than sitting here being harassed and having people who don't really know you spread rumors about something they don't know the other half of and having a terrifying ex constantly escaping and lurking around corners with no hope of relief...!"

She buried her head in her paws and leaned on her lap with an exhausted groan. Pos face fell in sympathy and he leaned over to pull Tai Lin into a tight hug. She didn't seem to mind. She took a very deep breath and said quietly, "I just want it all to stop."

Tai Lin didn't say anything else and just let Po rub her back and keep her in a tight hug. He promised her that'd they'd figure something out and asked her to just stay and let them help end her nightmare of being harassed and followed. Tai Lin just sighed. She looked up at Po with a haggard expression, though there were little glints of hope and trust decorating her eyes. The two didn't say anything, but in a moment, they had gone from looking at each other to sharing a gentle kiss.

Po felt Tai Lin's paws move from his chest to his arms and he just held her paws, drawing her just a little closer to him. For a second everything felt like it was falling into place. There was a moment where everything felt alright. But then just as equally fast everything felt strange....Po couldn't put a finger on what it was, but in just a moment the two had broken away from their kiss and took to staring at each other strangely. Tai Lin kept opening her mouth and looking like she wanted to apologize, but Po reached over and squeezed her shoulder as a way to assure her that everything was fine.

"Maybe we both need some sleep?" he suggested. "I think it's been a long day and I don't want you to feel so stressed out."

Tai Lin nodded in agreement and stood up. She awkwardly stood in front of Po for a second before quickly saying, "You're...um...you're a good kisser." And then she waved goodbye and walked over to the barracks.

Startled, all the master could say was, "Oh, uh, you too...."

As Po watched her walk away and eventually vanish from his sights, he couldn't help but press his fingers to his lips. His mind went back over the kiss multiple times in a row. In the moment it had felt so needed and right, yet...it felt...off. Something was off. Maybe they just weren't at that stage of romance yet? Or maybe he knew as well as she did that they couldn't have a genuine connection with everything so unsettled. He really did like her. He didn't want her to leave. But he also didn't want her to feel obligated to get married just to get away from a crazy psycho ex. Maybe if he could just talk to Shifu about it they could help her and then she wouldn't feel so stressed...then they could really see if this was meant to be.

The master pondered over Tai Lin's question about Shifu. Under normal circumstances, Crane probably would have gotten thrown out of the Jade Palace. Why had Shifu felt obligated to hire guards instead of just making him leave? He supposed he could ask. Then at least it would give Tai Lin some peace of mind about getting help.